Low-Power, Flash MCUs Are Available For

Reduced time to market, lower manufacturing costs, increased testability, non-volatile data capture, and the ability to make code changes in the field are the benefits said to accrue to designers of portable and battery-powered products using one of the four members of the new MSP430F11x line of flash-containing MCUs. The 16-bit RISC MSP430F112 and MSP430F1121 feature 4 KB of flash memory, an operating voltage range of 1.8V-3.6V and 2.2V-3.6V, respectively, and up to 8 MIPS performance, with the latter device also packing a comparator module for use in performing low-cost, high-precision A/D conversions. The other two devices, MSP430F110 and MSP430F1101, offer the same functionality as the first two MCUs but have only 1 KB of flash. MSP430F11x MCUs eliminate the need for ROM code versions as the new flash-containing devices cost the same as the ROM types. And the user has the flexibility of selecting what portion of the flash is to be used for programming code versus data storage. The flash is block-erasable. Samples are available, with production slated for March 2000.